Will Marquez race at the season opener?
Marc Marquez took to the track at Catalunya this week to gauge his readiness for a return to competition after eight months away from the racetrack.
The test followed on from recent scans that confirmed satisfactory progression of bone consolidation which gave him the green light to step up his strength and mobility recovery programme with a view to gradually returning to competitive racing. How long will that return take from here..?
The 2021 MotoGP season opener is only just over a week away and it does seem quite possible that Marc might use the event to turn enough laps to qualify with a view to hopefully scoring a few championship points.
Will he take that risk? I think that perhaps depends on how he pulled up after this test. If he is going to ride one would imagine he would be already now be on his way to Qatar in order to quarantine ahead of the opening event. Thus I don’t think it all that likely we will see Marc race the opening couple of rounds, but I hope to be surprised!
I imagine that the RC213V-S he was on was a bit more special than the customer bike. Gets you thinking that perhaps the MotoGP testing restrictions were some of the impetus for Honda to actually release the RC213V-S to the public in the first place…
Marc Marquez on RC213V-S Video
Provisional 2021 FIM MotoGP World Championship calendar
| Round | Date | Location |
| Round 1 | Mar-28 | Qatar, Losail (night race) |
| Round 2 | Apr-04 | Doha, Losail (night race) |
| Round 3 | Apr-18 | Portugal, Portimao |
| Round 4 | May-02 | Spain, Jerez |
| Round 5 | May-16 | France, Le Mans |
| Round 6 | May-30 | Italy- Mugello |
| Round 7 | Jun-06 | Catalunya, Barcelona |
| Round 8 | Jun-20 | Germany, Sachsenring |
| Round 9 | Jun-27 | Netherlands, Assen |
| Round 10 | Jul-11 | Finland, KymiRing (subject to homologation) |
| Round 11 | Aug-15 | Austria, Red Bull Ring |
| Round 12 | Aug-29 | Great Britain, Silverstone |
| Round 13 | Sep-12 | Aragon, Motorland Aragon |
| Round 14 | Sep-19 | Sam Marino, Misano |
| Round 15 | Oct-03 | Japan, Motegi |
| Round 16 | Oct-10 | Thailand, Chang International Circuit |
| Round 17 | Oct-24 | Australia, Phillip Island |
| Round 18 | Oct-31 | Malaysia, Sepang |
| Round 19 | Nov-14 | Valencia, Circuit Ricardo Tormo |
| Â | Â | Â |
| Round 20 | TBA | Argentina, Termas de Rio Hondo |
| Round 21 | TBA | Americas, COTA |
